Design-time system and method to enable programming assistance across languages and compilation boundaries

• US 20060101373A1
• Filed: 10/25/2004
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bartz, Bradley J., Hiebert, William E., Kichline, Evan G., Mohamed, Ibrahim A. K.
• Granted Patent: US 7,376,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

The subject invention pertains to systems and methods to provide rich and intelligent programmatic assistance across language and compilation boundaries. In essence, the systems and methods can monitor a plurality of compilation units in a software project to determine the language(s) employed therewith and provide intelligent code assistance to the compilation units for the detected language(s). The rich and intelligent assistance can correspond to providing code suggestions, among other things, based on the programming language being utilized and the context of its use. In brief, the herein disclosed techniques provide a seamless design environment to facilitate coding in multiple programming languages amongst a plurality of compilation units in project.

Claims

1. A software project development system comprising:

a plurality of compilation units;

a project management system that provides intelligent programmatic assistance to a user across a plurality of related compilation units associated with a software project.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the compilation units are specified in different programming languages.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the compilation unit is a code module.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the code module is part of a web page implementation.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the code module is a code directory.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the compilation unit is a web page and the software project is a web site.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising assist provider components that make intelligent assistance available for a particular programming language.

8. The system of claim 1, intelligent programmatic assistance includes providing users with suggestions based on program context.

9. The system of claim 1, the project management system further comprising a compilation system that dynamically compiles compilation units upon detection of one or more changes within the compilation unit.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the compilation system detects a compilation unit language.

11. The system of claim 1, the project management system further comprising a code editor component that makes programmatic assistance available to a user during code specification.

12. The system of claim 1, the project management system further comprising an intelligent assist component that makes intelligent assistance provided by assist provider components available to a user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the intelligent assist component includes a language detection component that identifies a compilation language employed by a program.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the intelligent assist component includes an assist provider detection component that detects the presence of new assist provider components and makes them available to the software project.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the intelligent assist component includes one or more project host component that host assist provider components.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the project host component includes a project interface that can be employed by an assist provider component to retrieve project information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the assist provider component includes a provider interface that supplies an abstraction through which a project host component can communicate with an assist provider component.

18. The system of claim 1, the project management system further comprising an asynchronous component that dispatches and processes requests associated with intelligent assistance to enable intelligent assistance functionality to be made available incrementally to a user.

19. A software project development system comprising:

a language detection component that identifies one or more programming languages associated with a plurality of compilation units in a software project;

one or more project host components associated with the compilation units based on a language associated with the unit; and

one or more assist provider components communicatively coupled to respective host components to provide automated language specific programming assistance for compilation units.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a compiler detects programming languages associated with a compilation unit.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the compiler dynamically compiles compilation units upon a save request and detection of a change to the unit.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the compilation units are web pages within a website project.

23. The system of claim 19, further comprising an assist detection component that detects a new assist provider component and instantiates a project host component to enable communication between the project system and the assist provider component.

24. A project design system comprising:

a means for identifying programming languages associated with a plurality of compilation units in a software project; and

a means for providing automated language specific coding assistance to each compilation unit.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the compilation units are web pages and the software project is a website application.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein compilation units are specified in differing programming languages.

27. A method of providing programming assistance comprising:

detecting a language associated with at least one compilation unit of a software project; and

providing automated intelligent programmatic assistance to the compilation unit.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the language is detected by a compiler based on one or more of compilation unit metadata and explicit language declarations.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the language is detected by dynamically analyzing unit source code.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the compilation unit is a web page and the project is a website including numerous web pages.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein the compilation unit is a middle-tier code directory.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein the programmatic assistance is provided through a code editor.

33. A computer readable medium having stored thereon the computer executable components of claim 27.

34. A software project assistance methodology comprising:

detecting a project compilation unit language;

locating an assist provider that supports the compilation unit language; and

loading the assist provider.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein locating the assist provider comprises employing an assist provider interface to query whether the provider supports a particular language.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein locating the assist component comprises analyzing registry entries to determine which assist provider supports the desired language.

37. The method of claim 34, wherein loading an assist provider comprises providing the assist component with a reference to the compilation unit via an assist provider interface.

38. A computer readable medium having stored thereon the computer executable components of claim 34.